Wolverine star injured playing 'tag' with kids

Australian actor Hugh Jackman showed off an injured right eye during a press conference in Sydney - but the accident didn't happen while filming his upcoming Wolverine sequel.

Jackman sported a red right eye at the media event, held to promote his new film The Wolverine and also featured the film's director James Mangold and Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

He told the crowd the injury wasn't because of training for the action movie, but rather "a very energetic game of tag with my kids", which he thought burst a blood vessel.

Jackman said it wasn't easy getting back into shape for the part, particularly coming from his last role as Jean Valjean in Les Miserables.

"That was a particular challenge because Les Mis, I had to start at 83 kilos and I finished at about 97 kilos by the end of the movie," he said.

"We did have a holiday recently, but it was more like boot camp for me. But the kids and (wife) Deb (actress Deborra-Lee Furness) were happy."

Shooting of The Wolverine is scheduled to start in Sydney on July 30, after a number of setbacks for the sequel to X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Last March, director Darren Aronofsky left the project, and Mangold stepped in to replace him. Then the shoot, which was originally meant to be in Japan, was postponed last October because of weather conditions.

Mangold said The Wolverine was based on a series of comics that detailed the mutant's journeys in Japan. He refuted reports that Jessica Biel had turned down the lead role of Viper.

"The story couldn't be more of a fantasy frankly, in terms of what I was reading, so it was nothing more than a list of people we were considering and still are," he said.

Jackman, who has played Wolverine now in five different movies over the past 12 years, said he took the movies on one at a time.

For The Wolverine, he saw the screenplay and was sold.

"I feel like a golfer, always looking for a hole in one and I thought this was the best script we've had," he said.

Jackman also expressed his sadness following the shooting at a US screening of The Dark Knight Rises.

"All I can echo is the sorrow I feel for the families, the community, for everybody," he said.

"It's an issue that goes way beyond, obviously beyond acting, beyond film or anything like that.

"This is just a tragedy on a level that we have experienced in Australia many years ago in Tasmania and it's devastating and I can't comment on (it) any more than as a human being and my feelings for those people involved."

- AAP